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Changing WAN MAC Address (Solved)

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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  • N
    NollipfSense
    last edited by NollipfSense Jan 27, 2022, 8:04 PM Jan 27, 2022, 5:29 PM

    What is the best way to change the WAN's Mac address? I tried both at the CLI and via webconfig's WAN interface tab unsuccessfully and I end up with WAN having both a hardware Mac address and an ether Mac address. When this happens, dpinger gets stuck in error 65 - no route to host, then the pfSense box takes, what seems forever, to complete the boot up process. That results in WAN having or getting no public IP and often ends up with 0.0.0.0 or n/a. I would like to change because I keep getting pfB_PRI1_v4 members trying to make TCP or UDP request to connect to my old PBX server address a year ago that doesn't exist...yes, I know they're not going anywhere...they seems to take over my firewall logs with entries.

    igb0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    description: WAN
    options=9100b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER,NETMAP>
    ether 3b:80:cd:5d:87:38
    hwaddr a0:36:9f:09:b0:3c
    inet6 fe80::4ecc:6aff:fe10:ed93%igb0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
    inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 255.255.255.255
    media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
    status: active
    nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

    pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
    pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

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    • S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 6:49 PM

      That's what it;s supposed to look like when you spoof the MAC. And via the WAN config in the GUI is where you should do it.

      You are doing this just so you get a different public WAN IP?

      Steve

      N 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:11 PM Reply Quote 0
      • N
        NollipfSense @stephenw10
        last edited by NollipfSense Jan 27, 2022, 7:15 PM Jan 27, 2022, 7:11 PM

        @stephenw10 said in Changing WAN MAC Address:

        You are doing this just so you get a different public WAN IP?

        Yes, Yes, Yes...how to? Had been wondering whether my ISP locked that address to my modem since it's my own. I had placed an Apple Extreme in front just to see whether I would get a different address, and I did.

        pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
        pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

        J 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:15 PM Reply Quote 0
        • J
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @NollipfSense
          last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 7:15 PM

          @nollipfsense said in Changing WAN MAC Address:

          ISP locked that address to my modem since it's my own.

          You sure its a modem and not a gateway? Do you get an actual public IP on pfsense wan?

          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

          N 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:31 PM Reply Quote 0
          • N
            NollipfSense @johnpoz
            last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 7:31 PM

            @johnpoz said in Changing WAN MAC Address:

            You sure its a modem and not a gateway? Do you get an actual public IP on pfsense wan?

            Yes, pfSense gets a public IP but it seems it was the same address before the ISP and me war a year ago.

            pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
            pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

            J 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:34 PM Reply Quote 0
            • J
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @NollipfSense
              last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 7:34 PM

              @nollipfsense well if you are on a dhcp normal sort of leasing, changing the mac of the device connected to your cable modem should change your IP.

              Most of time with a cable modem, and you change the device (or mac of this device) you need to power cycle the modem and then connect the new device or device that you changed the mac on.

              What I would do is disconnect pfsense from your modem. Power cycle the modem - then once its lights show that is connected to your isp. Reconnect pfsense after you have changed it mac - and if via normal dhcp leasing this new mac would/should get a new IP from the dhcp server of your isp.

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

              N 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:49 PM Reply Quote 0
              • N
                NollipfSense @johnpoz
                last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 7:49 PM

                @johnpoz said in Changing WAN MAC Address:

                What I would do is disconnect pfsense from your modem. Power cycle the modem - then once its lights show that is connected to your isp. Reconnect pfsense after you have changed it mac -

                Makes sense and was the only step I did not do...I keep the Ethernet cable connected and was just power cycling the modem on/off...that's why dpinger got stuck...the cable was still connected, look at that!

                pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
                pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

                J 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 7:53 PM Reply Quote 0
                • J
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @NollipfSense
                  last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 7:53 PM

                  @nollipfsense It couldn't hurt as well to release the IP before you disconnect it.. But I believe the first thing pfsense would try and do once it sees the connection again is renew which should fail because your a different mac, so it would then send a discover.. Which should get you a different IP.

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                  N 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 8:03 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • N
                    NollipfSense @johnpoz
                    last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 8:03 PM

                    @johnpoz said in Changing WAN MAC Address:

                    @nollipfsense It couldn't hurt as well to release the IP before you disconnect it.. But I believe the first thing pfsense would try and do once it sees the connection again is renew which should fail because your a different mac, so it would then send a discover.. Which should get you a different IP.

                    Worked like a charm...thank you John!

                    pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
                    pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Jan 27, 2022, 8:15 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • J
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @NollipfSense
                      last edited by Jan 27, 2022, 8:15 PM

                      @nollipfsense great - glad you got it sorted!

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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